2023
April 24th, 2023
Gave the Spiraea a buzz cut, back only about half this time. I’m going to see if they get a tiny bit bigger. IAs usual, the South one got so much bigger than the other 4! It’s almost branchy. I cleaned out as many of the thick, dead branches I could get to, but it’s just so darn leggy!
Planted a few bulbs in December 2022 (yes, I know).
There are 15 Daffodils up around the North bed, and Tulips with about 2″ tall starts.
Bleeding hearts are about 6″ tall and trying to put out flowers already, but they are probably freezing.
Astilbe are breaking through, so are the Salvia, Columbines, and of course, the Daylilies. Heuchera look nearly dead…I hate this time of year for them.
No sign of the Patriot Hosta, Hyssop, or Lupine, but I’m removing the Lupine, so that’s fine by me. The Hyssop might come up later…. I hope. The Patriot is always shy. I’m not worried.
Hydrangea has buds, only trimmed off dead heads to give it some growth this year. Same with Smoke Bush and both Dogwoods.
Back yard Regal Spendors already have pips…SO MANY PIPS! I re-covered them with leaf mulch because we will probably still get a few freezes, but these guys are going to be big this year. 🙂
The 3 planter hostas are not putting up pips. I think they didn’t make it. They over-wintered in the shed, and we had some nasty cold (-20) this winter. It was worth a try.
I didn’t overwinter anything else. It was too hectic in October and it just didn’t happen.
Roses are not yet ready to prune, but Nanny says to wait for the Forsythia to bloom as my signal to prune the roses, and none of the Forsythia around town are in bloom yet.
2022
In April, removed all the rock from the 12′ x 12′ flower bed in the front yard and pulled up all weed cloth. Replaced with mulch as I planted.
Moved plants and added shrubs and new perennials to the front garden to better deal with the hot shade situation.
Removed: Daisies, Dianthus, Delosperma from square garden (now called North bed) only (the little purple ones).
Spiraea
Once again, easy as pie. Trimmed back by 2/3 in late March/early April. They came in beautifully. The one closest to 17th always gets more sun and gets a little bigger, but leggier.
Didn’t fertilize or give any extra water other than the lawn sprinklers.
Hostas
Lots of new and moved things this year! The collection grows!
Moved two Regal Splendor hostas to the small corner rock bed in the back yard. Ran drippers from pampas grass to the new hostas. They did not bloom and showed some signs of heat stress. Their baby leaves froze when they first came up (they were in that hot part of the garden when the soil started to warm), and the leaves never did recover.
The third Regal Splendor remains by the downspout on the front right edge of the square garden, behind the daylilies. It is SUPER happy! Bloomed LOTS with big bloom stalks, over 4 feet tall!
Gave one Patriot to my mom and moved one out of the heat. It bloomed and is quite happy.
Added a Guacamole to the front corner of the square garden. It seems very happy there. No signs of heat stress, even after several 100-degree days in July.
Added a Golden Tiara in early July, in the middle of a heat wave. Dumb. It has lots of signs of heat stress, sunburned leaves, etc. But it has a little new growth, so I’m optimistic for next season. (Never rooted, removed in September.)
In Pots:
Wheee!, Blue Mouse Ears, and Magic Island are all doing great in small pots in full shade. Wheee! is on the front porch and the other two are in the back under the covered patio.
Heuchera
Moved Wildberry x3 around in the garden to get them out of the hottest spots and into the front of the garden bed. Only one got too hot (closer to the front door) and got a few sunburned leaves. (April 2023. It had no sign of new growth and was soggy. I pulled it out. 🙁
Added two Lime Marmalades and a Snow Angel. SO PRETTY!
I put 3 Palace Purples in with annuals in the big pots in the back yard. They are GORGEOUS! One has leaves as big as my hand! I want to overwinter them somehow.
All Heuchera bloomed this year, even the stressed one. 🙂
Daylilies
Awesome as always. Came in big and beautiful the first weekend in July. Treated once for spider mites, but very early in the season and they never skipped a beat.
New in the Garden for 2022
2 Peach Blossom Astilbe, 1 Coronado Hyssop, 2 May Night Salvia, 4 Lupine, 1 Bleeding Heart, a few Columbines… whew! Fertilized everything every 3 weeks May through mid-July.
The only thing that needs to go is the Lupine. They are NOT happy. Light green leaves, no growth, and the rabbits think they are very tasty, so they are badly damaged.
Shrubs in the Garden
2 Arctic Fire Dogwood bushes. Grew to about 2 feet tall the first year. WOW!
1 Winecraft Black Smokebush. Didn’t grow leaves on all branches from the nursery. Might have had some cold damage at some point. Got about 18″ tall the first year. Looks good and happy.
1 Little Lime Hydrangea. I was worried about this one, but it seems great! It needs more water than most — it is on two 4GPH drippers. But it did get some yellow leaves at 15 minutes 4x a week, so I lowered it to 12 minutes and it looks a lot happier. Got about 2 feet tall, with about a dozen small mop heads. I think I’m in love.
Planters
Had a lot of fun with planters this year.
The front fountain was planted with Creeping Jenny and Red Sunpatiens. It was SO pretty all season long!
The back 3 pots were each 1 Canna Lily, 1 Ornamental Kale, 1 ugly grey fuzzy thing (didn’t like the heat), and 1 Palace Purple Heuchera. I filled in gaps with Verbena, but it was cheap and didn’t fill in well over time. Would have been better with all heuchera around the Cannas. 🙂
Had a fuchsia out front for the first half of the season, but it died quickly and looked pretty diseased.
NO MORE PLANTS FROM WINDSOR GARDENER! Everything we got from them this year had thrips or worse. Gag!
Replaced it with a fern the first week of August.
2021
Fall of 2020, the Daisies, Daylilies, Dianthus, all ornamental grass, and pampas grass were cut down to winter. Cut down by Ray, from OCD Landscaping.
Removed all but three ornamental grass.
Planted roses, hostas, heuchera, dianthus, and purple ice plant.
Spiraea
Five Spiraea bushes (Magic Carpet?). I pruned them back mid-April to 6″ from the ground. Probably need to do it earlier next year, but they grew and bloomed well.
Didn’t fertilize. Only got water from lawn sprinklers.
3 Regal Splendor Hostas
Purchased from Lowes. Planted with compost in hole, mulch around top.
Two closest to garage on are 4 GPH drippers.
The corner hosta started to burn when the temperatures got hot. The rocks aren’t helping. Upped the water to 4 GPH dripper, but it did not bloom in 2021. I think the corner hosta will need moved to a shadier place.
The other two bloomed with long (5 ft long!) stalks.
Leaves yellowed in October when water was turned off (15th).
2 Patriot Hostas
Both bloomed in 2021.
Plant closest to the garage was not getting new leaves (I think it was heat stressed), so I put it on a 4 GPH dripper along with the other two hostas closest to the garage.
Leaves yellowed in October when water was turned off (15th).
Heuchera
Planted three Wildberry Heuchera in the rocks. Compost in the bottom of the hole, mulch around the top.
The center, corner one burned — almost died. I trimmed all blooms from it to encourage regrowth of foliage. Put it on a 4 GPH dripper and it seems to help. It has grown back full-sized leaves as of August 4th.
Planted a Wildberry Heuchera, a Lime Marmalade Heuchera, and a Fire Frost Huecherella in a pot on the porch. Full shade. It loves it there! Moved to backyard (for more afternoon sun) in October.
Treated for spider mites in June with Neem Oil spray.
As of November 10th of first year, there is not sign of freezing. 🙂 (Did not come back in the Spring. The pot got water-logged and their roots rot. Live and learn.)
Dianthus
Added two Dianthus to either side of existing dianthus. Nothing fancy.
Ice Plant
Maintained existing ice plant on south side of front door. Went through and cleaned out dead branches in early April when green started to reappear. Ice plant bloomed in early June. This patch is Fire Spinner cultivar.
Fertilized with bone meal in April.
Added five bunches of Cooperi (purple) ice plant next to the Daylilies in the north flower bed. They are already growing together into one mound as of August.
Maintained Daisies. Deadheaded down to next leave with a node after petals wilted. Didn’t rebloom.
Original Orange Daylilies
Cleared out dead leaves around bottom as I could reach them. Treated for spider mites twice. Fertilized with bone meal twice, April and June.
Didn’t start growing stalks until late June.
Grew HUGE 5″-6″ blooms that started blooming mid-July. Leaves were almost 4 feet tall!
Deadhead daily!
Before you plant 1000 of these (because they are gorgeous!), remember they are a lot of work to deadhead and keep clean-looking.